Bacolod City has received donations of AstraZeneca vaccine from two corporate sponsors to boost the local government’s coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccination campaign.
In a statement on Wednesday, the city government said representatives of the Lucio Tan Group of Companies turned over 700 doses of the European-made vaccine to City Administrator Edward Joseph Cuansing at the Government Center on Tuesday.
Cuansing received the donation from Philippine National Bank area head Maria Russel Lau and Asia Brewery Inc. market territory manager Michael Miranda, in the presence of Dr. Edwin Miraflor, officer-in-charge of the City Health Office.
Also on November 10, the Gokongwei Foundation donated 400 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to the city government.
Em Legaspi-Ang, executive director of the Emergency Operations Center-Task Force, welcomed the donations as Bacolod continues to ramp its Covid-19 vaccination efforts.
“The support coming from the private sector has inspired us to work harder to fast track our goal to achieve herd immunity,” she said.
Mayor Evelio Leonardia said the support highlights the fact that public-private partnership is very much alive in the country.
“It is a very laudable gesture that private business contributes to our people’s well-being in this most trying time,” he added.
Leonardia said he is confident the city government will meet its goal to inoculate 100 percent of the city’s target population by next month.
“We are on our way to herd immunity,” he said.
As of November 9, the number of individuals eligible for vaccination is 424,992.
Some 269,741 Bacolodnons have been vaccinated, with 235,392 getting at least one dose aside from the 34,349 individuals who received the Johnson’s single-shot Janssen jabs.
Source: Philippines News Agency